Fake wines a growing concern, especially in China

New York

IT'S a big time for fakes. Fake news. Fake art. Fake handbags. Fake sushi in LA.

And increasingly the focus is turning to the reality of fake wines. A few years back, a report in a French newspaper, Sud Ouest, estimated that 20 per cent of wines might be fake. That's a huge number; experts doubt it's that high, but it still indicates a growing concern.

The problem is biggest in China, because of its exploding wine market, which is projected to be a US$69.3 billion business by 2019, an 81 per cent increase over four years.

In 2016, Italian authorities seized 9,000 bottles of fake Moët Chandon. Discovered in a shed in Padua in northern Italy,…